Decolonising Languages Network

The Institute has partnered with the University of Birmingham to develop a Decolonising Languages Network, co-hosted between Birmingham and London. This initiative was launched in September 2020 with an inaugural conference, ‘Decolonising Modern Languages: A Symposium for Sharing Practices and Ideas’, and seeks to establish a hub for ongoing work on decolonising research and teaching, embedding anti-racism and rethinking the curriculum in Modern Languages and Cultures.
Co-ordinated by Emanuelle Santos (Birmingham) and Joseph Ford (IMLR), the network has established a mailing list, DECOLONISING-LANGUAGES-NETWORK, which anyone can sign up to at: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=DECOLONISING-LANGUAGES-NETWORK. The convenors of the network have also published a short peer-reviewed opinion article in the journal, Languages, Society and Policy, which can be consulted on open access here.
In parallel, the Institute coordinates an extensive training programme for languages researchers, including several sessions relating to the theme of decolonial theories and practices.
Links to event recordings, forthcoming/past events and postgraduate/ECR training related to decolonising languages research can be found under the events pages of our website.
For further information about the network, please contact Joseph Ford: joseph.ford@sas.ac.uk